


The Universe Child

by Fenix21



Category: Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Implied Mpreg, M/M, interstellar birth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-26
Updated: 2015-05-26
Packaged: 2018-04-01 07:39:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4011370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fenix21/pseuds/Fenix21
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kirk and Spock are connected. To each other...and something else.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Universe Child

They did not touch.

It was not like that between them.

It was more than that.

——

And that was not to say that they never touched at all.  They did.  In fact, they probably did much more frequently than the average male.  But the relationship was not dependent on the physical.  No, it had never been dependent on that.  It was in the mind.

Kirk glanced across the bridge at the blue clad muscular back bent slightly, but never hunched, over the science station.  The dark head raised only a fraction, but Kirk knew it was in direct response to his gaze.  A smile played at his lips.  Yeoman Rand came around the back of the chair and handed him a steaming cup of coffee and the log recorder.  She smiled genially in response to his good mood.

“Mr. Spock, do you have a reading on the Gamma Regilius 9 system?”

Spock straightened.  Kirk took pleasure in the stretching of those ripcord muscles as they pulled and lengthened over the lean frame, bringing the Vulcan to his full, regal height.

“Captain, I have detected no anomalous readings to confirm the scan taken by the Regilius 13 probe.”

“And yet, Starfleet finds it necessary to send us out here to this backwater sector.”  Kirk’s voice drifted off slightly, indicating his depth of thought on the matter.  He swiveled toward his first officer.  “Well, Mr. Spock, I suggest you keep looking.  There must be something there, if they’ve sent us this far.”

“Yes, Captain.”

_Spock._

_Jim._

And it was as simple as that.

Everyone knew that the relationship between the Captain and First Officer was far beyond platonic.  If they were perceived as lovers, of one kind or another, it did not bother them, and it did not bother the crew.

“Lt. Uhura, has transmission resumed from the probe?”

“No, Captain.”

“Keep communications open, Lieutenant.  If the transmission resumes we need to decode immediately.”

“Yes, sir.”

Kirk stood and took a turn around the bridge.  He paused by Sulu and scanned their vector and heading.  He strode casually to Spock’s side and peered over one narrow shoulder at the information display.

“There is very little of note in this sector, Captain; a selection of nebulae, a number of gaseous clouds, a quasar on vector 2.345, a pulsar at—”

Spock’s breath hitched.

Kirk had turned his attention to the viewscreen, but at the small sound, it swung back in alarm.

“Mr. Spock?”

Spock leaned on his console.  A deep breath.  A minute shake of the head.  The shoulders pulled back, chest expanding, as the Vulcan drew himself together.

_Spock?!_

_I am—fine, Jim._

_Liar._

_No.  Optimist._

“A pulsar at 3.89 by 4.2.  As I said, nothing of great importance.”

Kirk stayed close to Spock’s elbow.  “This makes no sense, Mr. Spock.  Starfleet indicated a massive life reading just moments before the probe went offline.”

“How can there be life out here, Keptain?” Checkov asked, sweeping a hand across his scanners.  “There is no star that even contains any planetoids; much less any that are class M.”

“That would certainly seem to be the case, Mr. Checkov,” Spock answered.  “However, if Starfleet’s readings are correct, then—”

The falter was worse this time.  Kirk could feel it through the narrow link that Spock kept open between them at all times.  It came like a pipe across the back of the head and knocked the wind out of Spock’s lungs.  He gasped this time and lurched forward into Kirk’s arms.

“Captain, I—”   Spock’s back arched and he went down hard.

Kirk couldn’t hold the Vulcan’s dense weight in such a deadfall and he went down with him, controlling the fall as much as he could, catching the shoulders and dark head in his arms before he could tumble onto the lower decking.

“Dr. McCoy to the bridge!” Uhura was already on the intercom.  “Medical emergency!”

_Spock?  Spock!_

_Jim…help me.  Such pain…I cannot—cannot shield from it!_

Kirk felt the panic rising in his gut, but he squelched it, lest it should spill over into the link and push Spock further over the edge.  He wrapped his arms firmly around the broad shoulders, pulling Spock’s head back and nestling it beneath his jaw.  He felt his body rocking of its volition, like a mother would rock a sick or injured child.

“Jim!  What happened?”  McCoy knelt down quickly and began taking readings with his scanner.

“I don’t know.”  Kirk’s voice was low and distracted.  He could feel Spock…slipping.  He didn’t know how else to describe it.  “He faltered once or twice, and then just collapsed.”

Kirk looked up at McCoy as he continued to scan, swearing softly under his breath about damned Vulcan physiology.  “Can you help him, Bones?”

“Jim, I don’t even have the slightest idea what’s wrong with him.”  McCoy put the scanner down.  “Spock, can you hear me?”

“Yes…doctor.”  Spock’s voice was graveled with pain.

“Can you tell me what’s happening to you, Spock?”

Spock’s head jerked slightly to one side, then the other, as he fought to regain enough composure to speak.  “Pain.  I…cannot…control…”  His back arched again and a fine sheen of sweat broke out across the high forehead.

McCoy felt a lead knot form in his stomach.  Spock didn’t sweat.  The Vulcan had never perspired a day in his green-blooded life on board this ship.  The planet Vulcan was so hot that Spock often complained, if it could call it that coming from a Vulcan, of the chill air and usually wore a thermal shirt under his uniform.

Kirk must have noticed the same thing.  He glanced at McCoy with sheer panic in his eyes.

“We need to get him to sickbay.”  McCoy took hold of Spock’s arms and Checkov and Kirk lifted his torso and supported beneath his shoulders.  They moved en mass to the turbo lift.

——

In sickbay, McCoy enlisted Nurse Chapel to sedate and lightly restrain Spock.

“Is that really necessary, Bones?”Kirk asked, plucking absently at the fabric of the restraints.

“It’s just to keep him from thrashing himself off of the bed,” McCoy replied gently.  He put a hand on Kirk’s shoulder and gently pushed him aside so that he could get at the scanners.

“Anything?” Kirk asked hopefully.

Spock moaned and tossed on the bio bed.  Kirk covered one long fingered hand with his own and absently rubbed his thumb in light circles over the tender flesh on the inside of the wrist.  Spock seemed to quiet just slightly.

“You have a calming effect on him,” McCoy observed.  He watched Kirk closely.  He was very well aware that the relationship between the human and Vulcan was far beyond mere friendship, but he had never been too sure just how far beyond.   He had once held out hope that the two would become lovers, but he was relatively sure that hadn’t happened.  At least, not in the traditional sense.

“Mmm,” Kirk mumured, distracted completely as a look of absolute anguish filled Spock’s face.

McCoy turned back to the scanners.  “Jim, I don’t see anything abnormal here.  All his readings are relatively on target—for him, anyway—except this one.  The K indicator—the pain indicator—here,” he pointed up at the far line, “that’s off the charts.”

“Like on Deneva.”

“Yeah,” McCoy nodded.

“But he could control it then!  Why not now?”

McCoy rubbed his chin.  “Maybe…maybe it’s attacking him mentally rather than physically.”

“Wouldn’t he be able to tell us that?”

“Jim, he’s not really telling us much of anything right at the moment,” McCoy pointed out.  “Maybe something’s wreaking havoc on that telepathic sense of his.  Kind of like when he felt that Vulcan ship being destroyed, you remember?”

“Yes.  Yes, I remember that.”  Kirk kept rubbing at the wrist.  His other hand had unconsciously gone to the Vulcan’s face, very near the meld points that Spock used on him from time to time.  He wondered…

“Can you—feel—anything?” McCoy queried cautiously.

Kirk let the fingers drift closer to the points.  He could feel a bare shadow of Spock’s turmoil through the link, but it was like watching from the outside.  Spock had the ability to project himself onto Kirk and make him feel the same things the Vulcan felt, but Kirk had no idea how to take on the sensations from his end of things.  His fingers floated over the temple and cheek.  He pressed down gently and closed his eyes.

_I am here, Spock…_

——

“Jim!  Jim, you all right?”

McCoy’s voice sounded distant and frantic.  Kirk tried to open his eyes again, take stock of himself and his surroundings.  He turned his head and realized that he was not standing anymore, but lying, somewhat awkwardly, on the sickbay floor.  He tried to sit up and was met with a wave of pain and sickening nausea.  He laid back and tried to pry his eyes open instead.

“Nurse, get me 3 cc’s of Choluline, stat!”

“Bones?”

“Jim?  Jesus, I thought I’d lost you there for a second.”

Kirk felt the familiar momentary sting of the hypo on his upper arm.  He flinched.

“Just a stimulant to help bring you around,” McCoy soothed.

“What happened?”  Kirk tried to roll a shoulder and lift an arm.  “I feel like I’ve gone ten rounds with a Romulan guard.”

“I was hoping you could tell me,” McCoy took his shoulders and tried to help him sit up.

Kirk groaned and squeezed his eyes shut.  “No…Bones…I can’t.”

McCoy lowered him back to the floor.  Concern flared again.  “Jim?”

Kirk patted his shoulder weakly.  “Just some nausea.” 

“What did you do?”

“I tried to enter his mind…to find out…what you needed to know to help him.”  Kirk flinched again and his shoulders pulled up off the floor as his stomach cramped.  On the bed above him, Spock cried out.

“Spock…”

“Nurse!”  McCoy hefted Jim up into his arms, using that amazing strength that he kept hidden beneath his professional veneer.  Nurse Chapel arrived at his side in seconds and took some of Kirk’s weight on her shoulder.

“Bones!  I—”  Kirk nearly doubled over.  McCoy grabbed the back of his captain’s uniform shirt and hauled him up and thrust him onto the next bio bed over from Spock’s.  Behind him, Spock thrashed against his restraints and cried out again.  

“Nurse, 4 cc’s Neffrin for the Captain, then bring me a neuroscanner.”

“Yes, doctor.”  Chapel raced out of the room.

“Bones…Spock…how is he?”  Kirk curled around himself, breathing in short, shallow breaths.

“I’ll let you know when I do.”  McCoy took the scanner from Chapel as she came through the door and began pressing the leads onto Spock’s head near his hair line and at his temples.  “ _Did_ you get anything?”

“Just an amazing…force.  I don’t know what else to call it.  Then, pain.  Just…pain.”

Suddenly the ship heaved and tossed McCoy across Spock’s chest.

“Bridge to Keptain.”  Checkov’s voice came across the intercom.

“What the hell’s goin’ on up there?” McCoy yelled.  “The captain is incapacitated at the moment!”

“No…Checkov, report,” Kirk ground out.

“Keptain, we have picked up mass energy readings 2000 kilometers off the bow.  They are off the charts, sir.  A moment ago there was nothing, then—it’s like space has suddenly become exponentially more dense.  I don’t know how else to describe it, sir.”

“Get Scotty to the Bridge, Checkov.  Set course…546 mark 234, warp…7.  Get us as far from here as possible.”

“Yes, Keptain.  Bridge, out.”

Kirk let his head fall back on the bed. 

The ship heaved again.  McCoy swore profusely and clung to the edge of Spock’s bed.  The Vulcan lay silent now.  His face slack and grey under the olive complexion.  

“C’mon, Spock, stay with me,” McCoy prodded.

Kirk reached out across the small distance between them and took Spock’s limp hand on his own.  Whatever had attacked him through his brief makeshift meld with Spock could not be detected through this casual contact.

_Spock…_

_Jim…Jim!_

“Spock!?”

“What is it, Jim?”  McCoy froze over Spock’s arm, hypo hanging in mid-air.

Kirk rolled onto his side and lifted up on an elbow, squeezing Spock’s hand even tighter.  “He’s there, Bones.  I can hear him….”

_Spock?_

_The child…you must help the child!_

_Child?  What child, Spock?_

_Barrier too strong, must weaken…anti-matter…pulse…resonance…._

Spock’s mental voice was fading away.  Jim pulled himself off of the bio bed, ignoring McCoy’s objections.  He leaned over Spock.  The Vulcan was still, deathly still.  Even his mind was quieting beyond what Kirk’s weak psionic abilities could hear.

“Spock, you have to help me.  I don’t understand.  What child?”

McCoy scowled, hypo still at the ready.  “Child?  Jim, what the hell are you talking about?”

“He said—” Kirk gasped and doubled over.  The ship gave another heave and trembled violently.  Kirk hung onto the edge of Spock’s bed, fighting the intense nausea and pain that was threatening to overwhelm him and dump him in a heap on the sickbay floor again.

The ship settled.

“Scotty…need Scotty,” Kirk hissed through clenched teeth.

McCoy shoved the hypo unceremoniously into Spock’s shoulder, tossed it on a nearby tray and came around the bed and bodily hauled Kirk back to his own bed.

“What you need, is to lie down.  I’ll get Scotty.”

“No…I’ll go to the bridge…can’t leave—”

“You’ll do no such thing.”  McCoy shoved him back down as Kirk tried to lift his shoulders to sit up.  “Jim, I swear, if you don’t lie back, I’ll knock you out.”

Kirk huffed out a breath of pain and defeat and lay back on the bed.  He turned his head to watch Spock.  He lay utterly still.   

_Gods, Spock…don’t leave me.  I can’t live without you._

McCoy punched the wall unit comm.  “Scotty, I need you down here, if you’ve got a minute.  Captain’s orders.”

“I’ll be right there, Doctor,” Scotty replied.

McCoy went back to his vigil at Spock’s side.

“Bones?”

McCoy looked over at Kirk.  He’s seen the faces of men who were faced with the death of family and friends.  It was an awful thing to have to look at.  Kirk’s face was a thousand times worse.  His expression was blank, but his eyes were tortured and burning.  McCoy was no fool.  The Captain and First Officer were discreet about their relationship.  No one aboard the Enterprise could claim they had proof that the two were lovers.  McCoy himself had no proof.  He wouldn’t even call it that if he were flat out asked.  Calling his two best friends lovers was an insult to the depth of the bond that they shared.  Kirk and Spock had something far beyond what could be described by any conventional human standard.

Looking at Kirk’s eyes right now, McCoy knew that if he lost this one, the other would follow.  It wasn’t a philosophical, romantic thought.  It wasn’t a psychological diagnosis.  It was truth and fact.  These two men were beyond the ability to live separately.

“Jim.  I can’t do anything more for him.  His vital signs are weakened, but they’re stable.  All we can do is wait.”

Kirk nodded once and settled his head back on the pillow.

The sickbay doors hissed open to admit Scotty.  He surveyed the room in a glance and looked at McCoy, who only shrugged and motioned over to Kirk.

“Mr. Scott,” Kirk addressed him, staring up at the ceiling.  McCoy could see more pain evident in the throbbing temple and jaw muscle.  “If I were to say ‘anti-matter pulse resonance’ to you, would that mean anything?”

“Aye, sir.”  Scotty frowned in confusion.  “It’s a hypothetical technique to weaken the sub-space barrier.  Only those as have an affinity for time travel and the like are very familiar with it.”

“Barrier.  He said the barrier was too strong…”  
“Jim?”  McCoy moved to his side.

“Spock.  When I was in his mind, he said the barrier was too strong.  He said we had to weaken it, and then he said something about anti-matter pulse resonance.”

“But what does that have to do with a child?” McCoy asked.

“Child?”  Scotty looked confused.

Kirk shook his head and sat up.  McCoy put out a hand to steady him and he batted it away.  “Nevermind.  Scotty, how long would it take to set up this anti-matter pulse resonance?”

“Set it up?  Are you planning on taking a trip through time, Captain?”

“Scotty…”

“Sir, it’s purely hypothetical, like I said.  I don’t know that I _can_ set it up.  Even if I did get the adjustments made, there’s no proof that it’ll even work!” Scotty cast a glance at McCoy.  Kirk did not miss it.

“Mr. Scott, I believe the good doctor will vouch for my soundness of mind.”  He smiled to gentle the admonishment.  “Please, Scotty, just see what you can do, and as quickly as possible.”

“Aye, sir.”  Scotty shook his head and left the sickbay.

The ship heaved and trembled again.

Kirk doubled over into McCoy’s arms.  He squeezed his eyes shut and fought the cramping in his belly.  “Bones…please, help us,” he panted.

McCoy pressed Jim back onto the bed.  “Jim, I just don’t know what to do!”  He paused, looking from one man to the other.  Spock was still as death, and Kirk was on his side curled in on himself.  “The pain seems to correspond with the ship’s upset.  Spock is being attacked mentally and you’re exhibiting only physical symptoms.  There must be some correlation, but I don’t have any idea what!”

He reached for the comm., “Mr. Checkov, McCoy here.  What’s going on up there?  What’s causing all the upheaval?”

“Doctor, we have set course away from the density disturbance, but we are experiencing random energy wave activity emanating from the anomaly.  I can’t explain it, Doctor.  Sensors still detect nothing, but an extreme density of space.”

“Any further contact from the probe?”

“No, Doctor, all silent,” Checkov replied.

“Very good.  McCoy out.”

Jim caught a moan in his throat, his shoulders pulling off the bed in response to another wave of cramps, as the ship gave another lurch.  McCoy grabbed a hypo on the tray by the bed and pressed it to Jim’s arm.  The Captain’s eyes snapped open and glared fiercely.

“It’s just a general muscle relaxant.  It won’t knock you out, I promise.  I just thought it might—”

“Muscle relaxant!” Kirk nearly sprang off the bed until his stomach revolted and he was forced back down.  “Call Checkov.”

McCoy scowled in confusion, but pressed the com button beside Kirk’s bed.  “McCoy to the Bridge.”

“Bridge here,” Scotty’s voice answered.

“Scotty, have Checkov look over the readings for the last interval and see if that density anomaly stays consistent.  Meanwhile, bring us to a full stop,” Kirk ordered.

“Aye, Captain.”

Kirk could hear Scotty conferring over the com.  Then Checkov’s voice came on.  “Keptain, The density anomaly does fluctuate.  It appears to dissipate just prior to one of those energy shock waves, and then builds up again.  The cycle appears to be increasing.”

“Is the intensity increasing as well?”

“Uh…Yes.  Yes, Keptain, the intensity is increasing as well.  Density increasing by a factor of 4.6 at each interval.”

“Very good, Checkov, thank you.”  Kirk’s lips had started to curve into that smile that McCoy recognized very well as his ‘I’m starting to get this figured out’ smile.  “Scotty, how are you coming on the anti-matter pulse resonance?”

“Well, sir, I’ve got the warp engines and the anti-matter matrix rigged like a Christmas tree, and the deflector dish will probably blow inside of a minute after the start of transmission, but I think it’ll work.  I still need to make a few adjustments.”

“Good, Mr. Scott.  You’ve got as long as it takes to get us back to the Regilius sector,” Kirk replied.  He could almost hear Scotty shaking his head with that look he wore when he thought his captain had lost his marbles.  But his response was the same as always, loyal and trusting,

“Aye, sir.  I’ll have it ready.”

“Kirk out.”

McCoy flipped off the com and crossed his arms.  “All right, spill it.”

Kirk rolled to his side and propped his head on his arm.  His eyes searched out Spock and stayed there while he spoke.  “Doctor, I’m about to enlist you to perform a medical procedure on a galactic scale.”

“What?” McCoy’s scowl deepened.

Kirk smiled like a Cheshire cat.  “Think about it, Bones.  We got an enormous life reading.  Then space started to become dense, and then “relax” for lack of a better word.  Then we started getting energy shock waves from the same point of fluctuating density.  What does that sound like to you?”

McCoy shrugged, completely adrift in Kirk’s mental workings.

“Space is contracting, Bones.”

McCoy blinked as sudden realization dawned while the pieces dropped into place.  “Contractions?  You think that something out there is giving _birth_?”

“Sounds ridiculous, I know—” Kirk bit his lip, sucked in a breath and grimaced just before the ship gave a sharp jerk and trembled violently beneath another shock wave.  He took a few deep breaths and then looked up at McCoy very seriously.  “It’s the only theory I have, Bones, and I don’t know how much more of this we can take.”

Kirk closed his eyes again and rolled onto his back.  McCoy could tell that the situation was taking its toll on him, and it was certainly taking a toll on Spock whose vitals has slipped another notch.  The very idea was absurd, but Kirk was right, it was a theory given the evidence they had.

“So, is this anti-matter pulse resonance suppose to be some sort of ‘scalpel’?  Am I doing a cesarean?”

Kirk nodded.  “I’m guessing that’s the idea.”

“But why Spock?  What does he have to do with any of this?  Why was he so affected?  And now you and no one else?”  McCoy had started to pace again, his mind trying to sort out all the information he had and put it into some recognizable order that he could work with.

Kirk did not answer right away.  He reached out again and laid a hand over Spock’s.  So many times Spock had saved him.  So many times he had reached into the maw of death and jerked him back out.  It was Kirk’s turn now.  He didn’t know if he was anywhere close to being right on this, but it was all he could come up with.  Normally he would have Spock to reassure him that his crazy solution was the correct line of action, and quote him the odds, but this time he had to take the leap himself.

_Please, let me be right.  Please._

“I can only guess that Spock’s telepathic abilities made him susceptible to contact with whatever this is.  He said the barrier was too strong.  That would lead me to believe the perhaps whatever it is that is giving birth is having difficulties.”

“Difficulties that might cause panic,” McCoy reasoned.  “And if the creature—or whatever it is—started to panic it would reach for help from wherever it could find it.”

“Right,” Kirk nodded his agreement.  “Its contact with Spock was out of pure instinct and desperation.  It didn’t choose him, he was just the closest life form that could understand the distress call.  And me,” Kirk shrugged, “well, I think that’s just a fluke because of Spock’s connection to me.”

Kirk looked over at McCoy.  His eyes were almost apologetic and a little bashful.  McCoy smiled gently and shook his head.  He put a hand on Kirk’s shoulder.  “Don’t go thinking that I didn’t figure the two of you out a long time ago, Jim.”

“It’s not what you think, Bones,” Kirk cautioned.

“No, it’s not,” McCoy admitted.  “It’s not what anyone thinks.  What’s between the two of you…I couldn’t begin to quantify.  I can see its strength in every move that the two of the make, every touch, every glance.”

“We’re that obvious, huh?” Kirk laughed quietly.

“No.”  He glanced at Spock, his face becoming grave.  “It’s just a fact of nature.  The universe has certain constants…the two of you are one of them.”

Kirk blinked away a sudden rush of tears and turned his gaze back to Spock.  “I can’t lose him, Bones,” he whispered.

McCoy put a hand on Kirk’s shoulder and squeezed gently.  “I’ll do everything to keep that from happening, Jim.  I promise.”

They were silent for a few moments.  McCoy suddenly frowned.  He punched the com,

“McCoy to Bridge.  Checkov, how long has it been since the last shock wave?  Is the frequency still increasing?”  He listened while Checkov punched keys in the background.

“No, doctor,” Checkov sounded taken aback.  “That doesn’t make sense.  The frequency has been consistently increasing until now.  Now it’s—”

The ship trembled slightly in that moment.  McCoy shot a look over his shoulder at Kirk, who glanced back in alarm, this time unaffected by the energy wave.

“The interval is become erratic,” Checkov confirmed.  “I don’t understand, Doctor.”

“That’s all right, Checkov.  You told me what I needed.”

“Orders, sir?” Checkov queried.

McCoy glanced at Kirk.

“Keep our current heading, Mr. Checkov.  Increase to warp seven.”

“Aye, sir.”

Kirk sat up on the bed and swung his legs over.  No ill effects.  He cast a concerned look at McCoy.  “I’m guessing this isn’t good?”

A sudden sharp beeping alarm made McCoy spin around to Spock’s monitors.  “Nurse!  Bring me 5 cc’s of Cortacosine and a hypo of Veristat!”

Kirk came off his bed and grabbed Spock’s hand, glancing over the scanners.  He had no idea what any of it meant, but he’d seen readings like that on other crewmembers in the past…crewmembers on the edge of death.

“Bones…”

“I’m working on it, Jim.”  McCoy took the hypos from Nurse Chapel as she ran around the corner.  “Get me a respirator and the cardiac stabilizer.”  She dashed off to retrieve the instruments.

“Bones?”

“I was afraid of this,” McCoy cast Kirk a fearful glance.  “The creature has tied itself to Spock on a psychic level.  The erratic energy waves must be an indication that the creature’s strength is failing.”  He paused and sucked in a shaky breath.  “Its dying and taking Spock with it.”

“NO!”  Kirk grabbed Spock’s face in his hands and pressed his fingers against both temples and jaw.

_Spock!  Spock, don’t let go!  Don’t you leave me!  We can beat this.  We know what to do, Spock.  Just hold on…_

_Jim…_

Kirk gasped out a sob and his hands slid from Spock’s face.  Alarms blared, and he could hear McCoy snapping orders.  Two orderlies were taking him by the arms and dragging him away while McCoy pushed in front of him and worked frantically to get Spock hooked up to the cardiac stabilizer before his vitals failed completely.

“Spock…”

The ship suddenly jolted, first aft, and then starboard.  Kirk was thrown to the ground in a heap with the orderlies.  He felt a sickening cold grip his spine and spread out through his limbs.  There was no pain.  Darkness licked at the edges of his vision.  “Bones, I....”

“Get him on the bed!” McCoy snapped at the orderlies. 

“Bridge to sick bay.  Is the Captain there, Doctor?”  Scotty’s voice came over the com.

“Yes,” McCoy ground out, “but he’s not in any condition to talk!”

“I’ve got the anti-matter pulse resonance up.  It’s now or never, but our readings on the density anomaly are fading.  Checkov is having trouble pinpointing it now.”

“Just do it, Mr. Scott.  Use whatever coordinates you last had, and fire the damn thing, or whatever its suppose to do.”  McCoy finished with Spock and turned to Kirk.  “Jim?  Jim, can you hear me?”

Kirk stared out through blind eyes.  The darkness was closing in on him.  He tried to suck in a breath, but the air felt too thin.  “Bones, I think I’m—”

“Oh, no you don’t!”  McCoy grabbed a hypo and then shouted at the com.  “Damn it, Scotty, I’ve got two men dying down here.  You’ve got to do something up there!”

“I’m not even sure we’re in range, Doctor, and we’ve only got one shot at this.  If we miss—” Scotty started to object.

“Do it…Mr. Scott,” Kirk ordered raggedly.  “Fire.”

Scotty gave no answer for a moment, then they could hear him giving orders and coordinates over the com.  “Sulu target the last coordinates of the density anomaly.  Checkov, configure for a wide dispersal pattern.  Engineering, give me as high an amplification on the energy pulse as you can.”

McCoy stood between the bio beds, one hand on Kirk’s arm, the other on Spock’s shoulder.  His chest felt heavy suddenly and his eyes burned.  He was about to lose the two men who meant the most to him.  He could already feel the void opening up to swallow them.  He grabbed Kirk’s hand and then Spock’s and put them together between his own and held on.

The ship fell suddenly silent, like the silence just before the rage of the storm.  The air took on a thick quality and McCoy’s skin tingled like it was electrified.  The deck plates hummed beneath his feet and then the whole ship gave a long low shudder.  He felt Kirk’s hand flex beneath his and the captain cried out suddenly in agony.  Spock gave no reaction.  His vital monitors dropped to zero and the alarms went off.

“Scotty, please…please tell me it worked,” McCoy whispered.

“Doc…you should see this!”  Scotty’s voice sounded awestruck.  “It’s—it’s beautiful!  Like a tear across space, but the light…the light is amazing.  It’s like a billion baby stars all twinkling together…like a shower of silver light across the dark.”

McCoy did not acknowledge Scotty’s words.  He closed his eyes and kept holding on.  There was nothing more he could do.  It was obvious the creature, if it had been that, had died during the ‘birth.’  McCoy could only hope that it had relinquished its hold on Spock in time.  He held his breath and waited a moment more.

The monitor alarms fell silent.  A steady rising  beep indicated the return of normal vital functions.

“Very poetic, Scotty…wish I’d been able to see it.”

McCoy’s eyes popped open.  “Jim!”

“Hey, Bones,” Kirk smiled wearily.  “Thought I was a goner for a second there.”  He looked at their conjoined hands, his eyebrow lifting quizzically.  “New treatment, Doctor?”

McCoy ignored the gentle teasing and carefully replaced Spock’s hand on the bed by his side and released Kirk’s.

Kirk lifted his head to look across the space at the next bed.  Spock lay still and silent, but his complexion was warmer and his chest moved up and down easily as he breathed steadily in and out.  He cast a questioning glance at McCoy.

McCoy offered Kirk a hand up and helped him regain his feet before moving around to the other side of Spock’s bed and giving the scanners a good look.  He seemed satisfied that the Vulcan was well and truly free of whatever power had held him and nodded in satisfaction.  “I think he’ll be fine after he gets some rest.  We’ll have to wait until he comes around to determine if there is any kind of residual mental or psychic damage.”

Kirk sighed in relief.  He took Spock’s hand in both of his and reveled in the returned warmth.

McCoy watched Kirk watching Spock, and his heart squeezed in his chest.  Yes, these two needed each other like the oceans needed the moon to move them in their tidal dance.  They were intrinsic to each other.  It was impossible to tell where one stopped and the other started.  He marveled at them, envy nibbling at him that he would never know anything like it were he to live another two hundred years.  This kind of thing came to only a few.  At the same time, he was happy beyond measure that it had come to these two.  Both men creatures of solitude, keeping the universe at arm’s length in order to do the jobs they did so well; at least they could find refuge and acceptance with each other. 

He watched them a moment longer, and then silently  moved away from the bed and left them to themselves.

Kirk was aware that McCoy had left.  It was kind of him to let the two of them alone.  They had never been much on public displays, and Kirk did not feel that he could keep the tears at bay any longer.  They slipped from beneath his closed lids in silence.  His insides shook in delayed grief at what had almost happened.  There was relief, too, but it was secondary to the fear at such a near loss.  He lifted his hand to Spock’s cheek, his fingers finding the meld points with ease now.

_Spock._

There was silence.

_Spock.  Be with me._

More silence.  Kirk waited, barely breathing.

_Jim…I am here._

Kirk’s breath left him in a rush as he felt Spock pick up the link and widen it, creating that solid unshakeable connection with which he was so familiar.  His body leaned into Spock and he felt the Vulcan’s long, strong fingers touching his face.

The world exploded.

There was all iridescent blue and glittering gold.  Here in this space there was no separateness.  There was no Spock and no Kirk.  They were as one.  

There was only light and air and heat and a togetherness that could not be defined in any language.  There were not words anywhere in the universe to describe the way Spock permeated every cell of Kirk’s body, filling the spaces between and around with the essence of himself.  Kirk let himself sink down and down, holding Spock inside of him and being held in kind.  The place where Kirk’s heart should have been was filled to bursting, overflowing with sensations that were so pleasurable they bordered on agony.  Tears fell all around him.  Tears of joy shed by both of them.  

_Never leave me._

_No, my T’hy’la, never._

Kirk let his eyes open slowly and found himself only a fraction from Spock’s face.  The dark eyes were open and staring into him, open doors into the deep wells that harbored all that was in the Vulcan’s soul, doors that opened only to him.  He blinked slowly and covered Spock’s hand at the side of his face, pressing it flat against his skin.  Spock raised his other hand to frame Kirk’s face, and Kirk brought his free hand to Spock’s chest, covering the powerfully beating heart.

Kirk had been closer to Spock than any mere physical touch could permit.  But he _was_ human, and his body wanted satisfaction.  It was alive and on fire.  The stresses of the last hours were coming to bear, intoxicating his mind.  He wanted…

Spock’s fingers curled back into the hair at the nape of Kirk’s neck and that tiny movement brought their lips together.

Liquid, white hot fire, pooled at the base of Kirk’s skull and seeped down his spine.  He opened his mouth to Spock.  Spock’s tongue delved inward, sweeping against the inside of Kirk’s mouth in long, slow strokes.  Kirk shivered even as he felt like he would burn alive in the next moment beneath Spock’s hands.  Hands that were pulling him closer, closer, until he was on the bed, stretched full length against that long lean body.

Heat.  So much heat!  No wonder Spock always felt cold on board this ship.  Kirk turned toward the most intense source of heat, fitting his hips easily against Spock’s.  His breath left his body at the simple contact, leaving him gasping against Spock’s mouth.  He felt Spock’s fingers move against his face again and , suddenly, he was immersed in molten fire.

But this fire did not burn.  This fire moved across his skin igniting every nerve.  It poured into his veins and flowed through every artery.  He panted for air, his vision consumed by white fire edged in glittering blue.  Somewhere, he still had a body, and that body was heavy and hard, swollen and yearning to be touched.  He tried to reach for Spock, to guide his hands, to beg him to finish this, but he could not find them.

_Spock!_

Kirk felt a pressure in his chest, a double heartbeat, and the heat that was driving him mad tripled in intensity and he could only groan as his body responded by growing even harder.  But was it his body?  His mind cleared enough to hear a harsh irregular breath against his ear, feel it spilling down his neck, and strong fingers gripped him, pulling him closer and closer. 

Kirk moved his hips and a double wave of euphoria washed over him, leaving him breathless.  He moved again and the pressure in his chest increased, that double heartbeat speeding up.

_Jim!_   Spock cried out in Kirk’s mind.

Kirk’s belly clenched in the familiar beginnings of orgasm.  His body was heavy to bursting with need.  He felt a sudden throbbing and his already engorged flesh hardened further so that he cried out in sublime agony.  The pressure in his chest was suffocating him and he was going to explode in mere seconds.

Long fingers wrapped around his thick shaft and the very touch shoved Kirk over the edge.  His flesh throbbed and pumped against that strong grip, spilling himself in a heady rush of white heat.  His own fingers desperately sought out hot flesh and as he grazed the hard heat of Spock’s body he felt yet another wave of molten pleasure pound into him.

Back in his own body, sprawled across Spock’s chest and panting for much needed cool air, Kirk was too weak to even lift his head.  He closed his eyes and nuzzled his cheek against the Vulcan’s chest, the heart inside still trying to regain a normal rhythm.  He licked his dry lips and whispered softly,

“Spock.”

“Jim.”

And it was as simple as that.

——

They touched.

It was like that between them.

But it was so much more….

 


End file.
